The 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; 7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8 but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. 9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. 11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will bring about at the right time-- he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. 17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life. (1 Timothy 6.6-19 NRSV)

 

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. 10 "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." 14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. 15 So he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God. 16 "The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped. 18 "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. 19 "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' 25 But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' 27 He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- 28 for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' 29 Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' 30 He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' 31 He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"  (Luke 16.9-31 NRSV)

 

“DO YOU SEE THE GORILLA?”

 

            Some things are hard to miss.  Some of them are big things, unusual things.  The Week mentioned that it was a “bad week for going out for a relaxing beer after a National Guard jet accidentally dropped a dummy training bomb into the parking lot of a Maryland pub, barely missing cars and leaving a three-foot-deep crater.  ‘The bomb squad told us we should rename the bar the ‘Bull’s-eye,’’ said the owner of Darlene’s Tavern.”  A three-foot deep crater in a parking lot would be hard to miss and you would certainly want to do so.

            The Gospel reading has a story of something that is also hard to miss.  It is the story of a rich man.  He had much good food to eat, and daily.  He was well dressed.  At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus.  Now, you might think that it would be hard to ignore someone lying at your doorstep, but he did.  And from there, Lazarus saw the rich man eating.  The poor man died and so did the rich man.  The poor man was at the side of Abraham.  The rich man was in torment in Hades.  The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus with a drop of water for his tongue.  It is rather amazing that he ignored Lazarus in life when he needed something and now he needs something and wants to put Lazarus to work on it.  The rich man is still only conscious of his own needs.  Maybe we are starting to understand why he didn’t see Lazarus.  Even right on his doorstep.

            Well, back to the story.  Abraham tells the rich man that this is now fair.  The rich man enjoyed life and now suffers; Lazarus suffered in life but is now in a good place.  Now, this, by itself, is not the point of the story.  Because if the poor will be blessed, then it is better for them to leave them poor and suffering.  No, this is about not ignoring the poor.  Besides, Abraham says, travel between Paradise and Hades is just not possible.  So the rich man does not give up, but still has a favor he wants Lazarus to do for him.  He wants him to appear to his brothers as a warning.  Abraham’s reply is that they have Moses and the prophets and if they do not listen to those, even someone who has come back from the dead will not change their minds.  If they are ignoring Scripture, which means ignoring God, then even seeing a ghost will not matter.

            It is easy to ridicule this rich man.  We, of course, could not miss such a big thing as a man at our doorstep.  There is a now-famous psychology experiment in which people watched a videotape of a basketball game and were asked to keep track of something like the number of points one of the teams scored.  Then they were asked if they saw the man in the gorilla suit who walked right through the middle of the game.  They replayed the tape, yup, he was there.  Many did not see him.  I didn’t see the gorilla.  The reality is that if you are looking at something else, you might miss other things, even extraordinary things.

            The reading from First Timothy is one of the warnings about the danger of earthly riches.  There are many things in life that are that something else we look at and miss other things.  Wealth is one of them.  Paul, or someone writing for Paul, says that the better way is contentment with what you have.  Also, we are to spend our time, our lives if you will, in pursuing good qualities and to remember the gift of eternal life and keep that hope pure.  Lastly, the writer of the letter tells the rich to put their hope on God, not on unstable riches.

            One of the reasons that the Bible has warnings about riches is that it is so easy to fall under their spell.  What do we make of our national obsession with gaining wealth?  Do we listen to the Wall Street Journal more than the prophets?  Do we care what Warren Buffet says more than what Moses says?  Has pursuit of money replaced the spiritual life in this country?  If it has, we are in danger like the rich man and his five brothers.  With greed in our eyes, what possibly can warn us?  Money is all around us, in our daily lives.  The other is that money can blind us.  It can make us increasingly self-centered and blinded to others, or worse yet, make us so we only see others in terms our own needs.

Lillian Daniel writes about things she has heard that bother her.  One such thing was a presentation at a conference.  The presenter made statements like that it was harder for rich people to experience God’s love than the poor. And that the poor have to rely on God’s love so much more.  And that they just seem so much happier.  Her thought was, “I have heard rich people say that ‘the poor are lucky’ before.  But I have yet to hear a poor person say it.”  There are ways of treating the poor like the rich man wanted to, in self-serving ways or in ignoring who they really are.

            Perhaps what we really need to start with is to learn to see again.  And learn not just to see what we want to see or not to see what we don’t want to see.  Maybe we need to start with the world around us.  If we do that, it will not be long before we see people who we did not know were there, or people who need us.  Perhaps we need to learn to see again, not as we see but as God sees, as J. Brent Bill talks about.  He had a dinner guest, his brother-in-law, whom he found annoying.  He thought he knew everything and talked too much.  But because his wife loved her brother, he decided to see him as she did and then had the thought to see him as God does.  The evening went well, because of what the Spanish philosopher Baltasar Gracián found, “When the eyes see what they have never seen before, the heart feels what it has never felt.”  God sees people with needs where we see the poor, or people in our way, or annoying people.

 

            There are things that we never thought we could miss, but we do.  We tend more to see what we want to see and disregard the rest.  But we have a warning.  We are not to go through our lives unaware of what and who is around us.  It is easy to do that.  We are not to go past those who need us and not touch their lives.  What are we not seeing?  We need to see new things, even the obvious.  Lillian Daniel ended her piece with this prayer: “Dear God, give bread to those who are hungry and thirst for justice to those who have plenty.  Amen.”

 

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